Scientists Discover Gene that Controls Rice Chalkiness

• Rice is a staple food for over half of the world’s population, but its breakage increases due to a trait called chalkiness.

• Chalkiness is measured by the chalky grain rate, the proportion of chalky grains among all rice grains, and the degree of chalkiness.

• A team from the Agricultural College of Yangzhou University in China identified a gene named Chalk9 that controls chalkiness in many rice varieties.

• The researchers sequenced the genome of 175 rice varieties and identified a small stretch of DNA on chromosome 9 whose presence or absence correlated significantly with the variety’s chalkiness.

• Less chalky varieties contained the segment and showed higher expression of Chalk9 in endosperms compared to high-chalkiness varieties.

• The researchers predicted that the Chalk9 gene encoded a protein belonging to a class of enzymes called E3 ubiquitin ligases.

• The researchers found that the Chalk9 protein attached tags to another protein called OsEBP89, which turned on two kinds of important genes.

• The frequency of the Chalk9 gene’s low chalkiness version, Chalk9-L, was relatively low prior to 1990, but increased significantly thereafter.

• Breeders can now introduce Chalk9-L into rice varieties from which it is absent to reduce chalkiness and improve grain quality.

Rice Genetics and Chalkiness is important topic for Civil service exam (WBCS).

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